Cooking with Kids: Toy Doner Kebab

Sadly, I noticed this too late to put it on a Christmas list, but it’s not too early to start next year’s list. Not my daughter’s list. Mine.

It’s a plush doner kebab sandwich. “The fuzzy cloth pita opens up to reveal all the fixings necessary for a traditional gyro, including lamb meat, tomato slices, onion rings, lettuce, and pepperoncini. Don’t like onions in your kebab? Take ‘em out!” If there’s one thing I hate on my sandwich, it’s polyester onions.

Like all toys, this one comes with a warning: “This gyro has such a delicious appearance that they should be kept away from small children, lest they mistake the play food for the real thing.”

I think this is a good idea. My daughter is five, but I don’t want to take any chances. After I get my toy doner kebab, I’m going to play with it all day and refuse to share.

One other advantage of the toy kebab. “There’s nothing like eating an amazing doner kebab and then walking into a room where someone tells you exactly what you just ate from only smelling it on you,” wrote Jenn Sit in her East Village eats roundup last January. “This is the magic of doner kebab.” The toy doesn’t have this problem.

Toy food sure has come along way since the days of plastic french fries, hasn’t it?